


a curse, a voice to call your name forever

by TheTartWitch



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Dubious Consent, F/F, Son of a siren, nobody WANTS to be mindcontrolled, percy has super-powered charmspeak, percy isn't poseidon's son, sally had a secret tryst with a half-bird lady and nine months later: percy, siren-version of charmspeak, this would probably completely change canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-08 21:59:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14703201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTartWitch/pseuds/TheTartWitch
Summary: Percy doesn't talk much.He also doesn't sleep in Poseidon's cabin.





	1. The Arrival

**Author's Note:**

> any tags you think should be added?
> 
> Any research on this topic was done mainly with wiki but some other sources thrown in for flavoring.  
> My sirens are probably gonna be different from canon, which I'll explain if there's ever a second chapter of this.
> 
> Dub-con for mind-control creepiness.
> 
> It's been a long time, please forgive me if characterization is off a bit. :)

When he arrives at camp he is quiet, unsettling, unclaimed. His smiles don’t reach his eyes, he doesn’t speak; his mother drops him off at the border of the camp with a pretty smile and few words to Chiron. He sits on a log outside the border and waits for them to decide to admit him or not. He makes no argument in his own defense, though his mother argues fervently. She and Chiron debate quietly, allowing no one to overhear.

Eventually Chiron apparently relents, and motions him past the boundary line. The Athena cabin is particularly interested to see he hesitates (or is momentarily denied entry, the jury has yet to decide) at the very edge.

\--

He disappears during the tour and turns up at the lake’s edge, talking to the ambient waves. Clarisse La Rue attempts to dunk his head in a toilet alongside two minions. They find the three of them later, hanging from their ankles at the top of the rock wall, narrowly missed by the lava rivers streaming down the side and no memory of how they got there.

He’s at the camp two weeks before anyone learns his name. Perseus Jackson.

\--

He bunks in Hermes’ cabin. When they approach, he ducks away. Small talk is met with derisive smiles that again don’t reach his eyes. He eats with them and sleeps with them, but the rest of the time he spends on the beaches, pacing the sands and whispering the ripples of water as they expand from the beach.

They catch the first glimpse of the real him the night they play capture the flag. Athena Cabin sends Annabeth to convince him to play their side. He smiles that smile and dons the armor she pushes into his chest.

“We’re eager to see what makes _you_ special,” she tells him, a lovely bit of flattery if she does say so herself. He nods impatiently and practically pushes her out of his way. “Aren’t you going to get a weapon?” She asks, confused. He just walks past her.

\--

They’re in the middle of an intense battle, swords flicking like snake tongues, blades flashing like sparks of a flame. Clarisse in in particularly good shape tonight, weaving through her opponents like thread, tying them all together. Annabeth flies between them, her baseball cap keeping her just out of sight. They are all moving, fighting, surrendering, and then.

There is a whisper, and they still. A tune winds through the air. A song, soothing and calming, deep and slow and encapsulating. She turns.

Percy stands on the beach of the little creek, mouth open, eyes glowing a pale blue-green, the ocean on a stormy day.

“ _Why would we fight?_ ” He calls, lilting and lovely. She _feels_ herself melting, knowing and unable to stop it all at once. Percy beckons two hands towards himself and they all sway in place as though tugged by tethers. “ _There’s no need to win my favor,_ ” he reassures them, and she hears several sighs of relief. “ _All you need to do_ ” he grants, “ _is bring me the flags. Both of them. There’s a good dear._ ”

Clarisse, eyes glazed and hands steady, stalks to the flags. No one stops her; they either move out of her way or outright help her, regardless of armor colors. She kneels before the boy in the creek, unheeding of the mud on her knees, unable to restrain the look of adoration on her face as she says, “For you, my liege.”

He takes them, smiling gently to her, and lays one open palm on the side of her face. “ _Thank you, my dear. That wasn’t so hard, was it?_ ” With that, two flags clenched in one white-knuckled grip, he turns and strides through the woods to the steps of the Big House where Chiron waits. Similar to Clarisse’s pose but wholly more mocking, he kneels to present the proof of his victory alone to the centaur.

“To the glory of Achelous, father of my maiden mother, and to Persephone, gone from our hearths but not from our hearts.” He blesses them with a brush of his lips and lays them at Chiron’s front hooves. The centaur looks down at him with pity in his eyes. He looks up at them all, ringed around the scene like carrion birds on a corpse.

“Percy Jackson,” he announces, arms raised to welcome them all. Percy snorts in derision, though it isn’t clear which part he’s denouncing. “Son of Sally Jackson and the Siren Thelxinoe, born of the Sea and to the Sound of the Song, only known demigod of the Siren sisters, handmaidens to Persephone, the Life-Bringer.”

It is an unnecessary number of titles for such a boy, eyes still glowing green-blue, the water from the fountains curving into the air as though seeking his touch. He is not so impressive, she tells herself. He is nothing. Athena is far more impressive.

(She tries to hide the seize in the bones of her neck when his odd eyes land on her and alight like a butterfly’s touch, dismissive of her very existence.)

(She tries not to feel her heart’s skipped beat for days afterwards, and to ignore the greedy eyes of her fellow campers as they gaze upon him.)

Where will they place such a boy? With Poseidon, master of the water the boy has charmed? With Demeter, mother of the boy’s mother’s master? In the Big House, to recognize the significance of his birth?

He is not special, she tells herself.

She is lying.


	2. Lightning Thief: 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy is accused.  
> Annabeth and Grover accompany him to the Underworld, where Percy is well-known..?

When the knowledge of Zeus’ stolen lightning bolt is released to the camp, she finds herself watching his reaction, breath caged in her chest. Will he smile in that way of his? Will he rage? Will there be the slightest flash of worry or uncertainty on that smug face? 

He does none of these. If anything, he seems unsurprised by the news. She thinks: is he the thief, as Zeus claims?

But she has no evidence. Nothing to connect him to the crime. Nothing but the glee in his eyes as Chiron longsufferingly announces the gods’ panic to their children and chaos erupts. 

Nothing at all. 

\--

He is full of surprises. They travel for the Underworld,  strange desperate light in his eyes, and along the way he grows wings and wicked talons to fight the Furies, speaks Medusa into seeing herself in a window and vaporizing herself, convinces Procrustes that perhaps he’s a bit too  _ tall  _ for that bed (off goes Procrustes’ head with a mighty swing of Percy’s Riptide), and bows his head to Ares, god of war. Any of the god’s attempts at riling the son of a Siren are met with a mouth seemingly fused shut and dutiful, if grudging, respect. 

\--

The Underworld doesn’t look quite how Annabeth was expecting. There are less skulls and flames, and more ghost-like figures. Charon takes one look at Percy and immediately offers all three of them a seat on his ferry, nervously trying to start conversation as Percy stares dead into his eyes, unblinking. When they reach the other shore Charon ushers them out of his boat and quickly casts off again. Percy seems dissatisfied but ultimately says nothing. 

Inside the palace set into the stone they go unhindered. Percy’s Siren features release themselves, talons clicking on the stone floors, wings long and draping along as they walk, eyes beading and focussed. It’s interesting to note how far the changes extend; feathers plume just behind his ears and down his neck, his fingers become hard and scaly up to the first knuckle, his legs take a true bird’s shape with the knees knobby and thin. His voice hums in low trills as they enter the throne room. He changes his legs back to human to kneel before the man who must be Hades, sallow and pale with a sunken, threatening demeanor.

“My Lord,” Percy greets, voice low and revenant. “Well met, my Lord.”

Hades appears unimpressed, but there’s a softening of his eyes as he peers down at Percy. Annabeth holds her breath, containing the anxious tick that wants to escape. Grover keens under the usual auditory range, and Hades sighs. 

“Perseus,” he groans, “Zeus is saying you’ve stolen from him.” There’s a pause as he studies Percy’s shoulders before asking, “Is this true?”

Percy’s head shakes quickly, one-two to either side. “I would never! What use would I have for his weapon? I cannot even wield it, and none of my masters desire it, so why would such a theft even occur to me?” Hades nods his head. It seems he anticipated such a response. 

“I had to ask, boy,” he growls, but it doesn’t seem to be an angry sound. “You understand that he’s my brother, but also there has been...another theft. From me.” 

She can practically see the rage growing in Percy’s eyes. “They dare steal from my Lady’s husband?”

“My Helm,” Hades proclaims, “was also taken. I didn’t report the theft because I do not trust the other gods not to have been the ones to take it in the first place, and announcing my weakness would only invite disaster. I want you to find and return it, boy. Prove to me that my wife’s faith in your kind is not undeserved.” Percy’s eyes shine. He seems to glow.

“It will be done,” he swears. 

“My wife,” Hades waves a hand lazily to another doorway to their right. “Wishes to speak with you. She says it’s a secret even to me, but there’s a task she wants  _ you  _ to complete, not one of our servants, so do your best, won’t you?”

Percy seems about to pass out from excitement and happiness. He bows once more to Hades, a low as is possible, before loping off through the doorway, wingtips still dragging against the stone tiles of the Underworld’s palace.

She and Grover sit there frozen and seemingly forgotten as Hades drifts past, hiding a yawn behind one well-manicured palm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Percy's reverence for Hades is due to him being the husband of Persephone, whom the Sirens served when they were minor gods. There was some residual animosity between him and the ladies for a while, but then they saw how happy he made Persephone (certainly happier than she'd ever been with Demeter) and they forgave him, even coming to revere him. That's why Hades' servants all allow Percy's running about in the god's realm.   
> Questions?

**Author's Note:**

> Thelxinoe was (maybe?) one of three sirens. Her name means "pleasant-sounding" or "the charmer" which is why I chose her to be Percy's bird-mum.  
> Basically, Sally got physical with somebody on a beach, it just wasn't Ocean Dude. Sally knew what she was getting into and told Percy everything she could. He doesn't talk much because he thinks life is boring if you can literally get anything you ask for just by asking. Water enhances his powers (mainly because the sirens were supposed to have thrown themselves into the sea after Odysseus but they're still there in Book 3? I think? for Annabeth to risk her life with, so idk), widens his range, adds a bit of oomph to his "suggestions". His mum's a lot more supportive than Poseidon was canonically, always there if he needs to chat or just someone to talk at, as his voice doesn't affect her and vice versa, and he always gets great presents from his aunts at birthdays and Christmases and stuff. Sally continues on as an independent woman who don't need no man, and yeah. Percy's a little cynical with a "monster" for a mom.  
> Anything else I forgot to mention? Comment below. Cheers!


End file.
